Monday, 11 February 2013

Random Rambling Monday | Cats and fats

In my former LiveJournal, I used to do this thing called Random Rambling Monday. It was a way for me to kick into gear and just write, no pretenses, no pressure, no sense. I'm going to try and revive that in this blog. So once a week, you can expect the random ramblings of a fool. Fun!

I'm gonna write an entry about things that are too short to dedicate a blog entry to, but too long to be tweeted.

I've never associated cats with loneliness.

I'm a sucker for cat movies/shows. I will watch any sort of movie that has cats majorly involved in the plot. Thus, it was no question for me to pick up Rent-a-Neko and Natsume Yuujinchou to watch on lazy afternoons. Anything involving cats are supposed to be light and fluffy and cute and funny right?

I didn't expect that they'd make me realize how lonely people could really be.

Rent-a-Neko was something I picked up because I thought it was going to be comedic and light-hearted. It's about a woman who goes around renting cats to people who are lonely. How can you go wrong with that? But as she went through her "clients" and hearing about their stories, it just made me so sad that people could be so lonely. It made me sad that people go through life so mechanically and don't even stop to think about what purpose there is to what they're doing. It makes me sad that we take so many people for granted. All this in a 2 hour long movie.

Almost immediately right after, I started watching Natsume Yuujinchou, an anime series about a boy who can see youkai (demons/mystic creatures) and a cat who's a youkai in disguise, guarding Natsume. Once again, I thought this was going to be a funny anime about misadventures and interesting creatures. NY gave me that, but I also got HEART WRENCHING FEELS that I can't even coherently explain. How can people be so judgmental and mean towards a sad, confused child? How can someone who's been so hurt his entire life find the heart to help? Why do people refuse to believe the truth, and moreso, vilify those who do oppose their idea of truth?

I'm listening to the soundtrack right now and practically every track is making me cry.

But I think the moral lessons in both the series I've watched is cats are good and we all need cats to make us happy. Nah, just kidding. The moral lesson is no matter how lonely you are, there will always be someone or something that will love you and make you happy.

Everybody feels alone at some point in their life. We'll each get to a point where we feel like everyone has abandoned us and wants nothing to do with us. But what we should remember is that the people who stay are the people who are most important. And the people who love you do it unconditionally.

And two more lessons to bring home! (1) You can be powerful and have all the authority and money in the world, but a simple person who is nice to people will get all the help he needs unconditionally. And finally, (2) listening to people and their stories goes a long way.

“They come without asking, and then they leave just the same. But once you meet them, even if nobody ever knows it, that encounter will change your life for the better.”
-- Natsume Takashi

"I'm not fat, I'm round!"

Thank you Nyanko-sensei for the above quote.

Which provides a great transition to my next topic!

In Filipino families, it's quite standard to greet family members with "You've gotten so fat!" No one bats an eyelash whens somebody says this. But I think the events that transpired yesterday are worthy of much more than a shrug and a raised eyebrow.

See, my cousin is a bit plump (or at least much plumper than she was before), but she's taking steps to lose weight. What was mind-boggling and a bit frustrating was my aunt, a doctor who felt the need to remind my cousin of how fat she was becoming. In front of the whole family. And made her step on a weighing scale.

"She's so Kuuki Yomenai" I told my cousins, and they deftly agreed, followed by a heated rant on the way home.

Two things that made me wonder during this event. Number one: how can people be so dense not to see how their words are upsetting other people?

I mean obviously, it's already a pretty vindictive thing to tell someone that they're fat with no provocation. But to go on about it for a good 30 minutes? Definition of KY right there, folks.

And number two: so what if a person is fat? I don't think it makes you any less of a person when you weigh more than average. Why give someone such a hard time just for being fat? It's not like she's going to lose a pound for every minute that you berate her.

Also, being fat is not an indicator of any person's physical activities or eating habits, because we're all built differently. I weigh a good 20 kilos less than my cousin, but she's the one who actually jogs every morning and puts effort into exercise. So you can't say that you care about someone's health and well-being just by looking at them and deducing that they're sedentary and indulgent.

5 comments:

Can't believe how you made me cry for the first half. To be honest, that's what I've been contemplating the past couple of months. :') And the quote just nailed it.

As for the second part, I guess, some people see "weight" as a form of discipline. For some, it may be one way to show that they are very disciplined about taking care of themselves, but we all know that it's not always the case. :)

wow! I also love cats, and movies involving cats! I will give it a try. Somehow the concept of 'renting a cat' reminds me of the movie 'noriko's dinner table' where relations are rented such as parent-daughter and so on!

It is a very far genre from the one mentioned in your post.Neverthless it is one of my favorite movies, and one of the most scary ones, I find the situations shown there very scary. Give me your opinion or write a blog entry once you have watched it :)